.\"	$NetBSD: getent.1,v 1.23 2011/10/11 20:39:40 wiz Exp $
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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Luke Mewburn.
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.Dd October 11, 2011
.Dt GETENT 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm getent
.Nd get entries from administrative databases
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm getent
.Ar database
.Op Ar key ...
.Nm getcap
.Ar database
.Op Ar key ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
program retrieves and displays entries from the administrative
database specified by
.Ar database ,
using the lookup order specified in
.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 .
The display format for a given
.Ar database
is as per the
.Dq traditional
file format for that database.
.Pp
.Ar database
may be one of:
.Bl -column "protocols" "user:passwd:uid:gid:gecos:home_dir:shell" -offset indent -compact
.It Sy Database Ta Sy Display format
.It disktab Ta entry
.It ethers Ta address name
.It gettytab Ta entry
.It group Ta group:passwd:gid:[member[,member]...]
.It hosts Ta address name [alias ...]
.It netgroup Ta (host,user,domain) [...]
.It networks Ta name network [alias ...]
.It passwd Ta user:passwd:uid:gid:gecos:home_dir:shell
.It printcap Ta entry
.It protocols Ta name protocol [alias ...]
.It rpc Ta name number [alias ...]
.It services Ta name port/protocol [alias ...]
.It shells Ta /path/to/shell
.El
.Pp
If one or more
.Ar key
arguments are provided, they will be looked up in
.Ar database
using the appropriate function.
For example,
.Sy passwd
supports a numeric UID or user name;
.Sy hosts
supports an IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or host name;
and
.Sy services
supports a service name, service name/protocol name, numeric port, or
numeric port/protocol name.
.Pp
If no
.Ar key
is provided and
.Ar database
supports enumeration, all entries for
.Ar database
will be retrieved using the appropriate enumeration function and printed.
.Pp
For
.Xr cgetcap 3
style databases
.Sy ( disktab ,
.Sy printcap )
specifying a key, lists the entry for that key, and specifying more arguments
after the key are used as fields in that key, and only the values of the keys
are returned.
For boolean keys
.Dv true
is returned if the key is found.
If a key is not found, then
.Dv false
is always
returned.
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Nm
exits 0 on success,
1 if there was an error in the command syntax,
2 if one of the specified key names was not found in
.Ar database ,
or 3 if there is no support for enumeration on
.Ar database .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr cgetcap 3 ,
.Xr disktab 5 ,
.Xr ethers 5 ,
.Xr gettytab 5 ,
.Xr group 5 ,
.Xr hosts 5 ,
.Xr networks 5 ,
.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
.Xr printcap 5 ,
.Xr protocols 5 ,
.Xr rpc 5 ,
.Xr services 5 ,
.Xr shells 5
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.Nx 3.0 .
It was based on the command of the same name in
.Tn Solaris
and
.Tn Linux .
